Comparison of cytotoxic and photoluminescence properties between Fe2O3 and Fe3O4

The water soluble Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by coprecipitation method followed by calcination. The Bragg reflections confirm the formation of hexagonal alpha-Fe2O3 and cubic inverse spinel structure Fe3O4 NPs. The surface morphology consists of irregular shaped agglomerated NPs. The direct energy band gap estimated from Wood and Tauc's plot was found to be 1.75 and 1.81 eV for alpha-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 NPs respectively. The photoluminescence spectra and CIE clearly show the blue emission from both samples whereas high intensity is observed for Fe3O4 NPs. The cytotoxic properties of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 NPs were studied and analyzed against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line and compared with standard drug Cisplatin. Compared to Fe2O3,Fe3O4 NPs shows good cytotoxic property more than Cisplatin. Thus, the present synthesized water soluble Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 NPs might be a good candidate as a nanophosphor in display technology and a anticancer drug carrier.